1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to RF power amplifiers and amplification methods. More particularly, the present invention relates to feed forward amplifiers and methods for controlling feed forward amplifiers.
2. Description of the Prior Art and Related Background Information
RF amplifiers are devices that attempt to replicate a RF signal present at its input, producing an output signal with a much higher power level. The increase in power from the input to output is referred to as the ‘gain’ of the amplifier. When the gain is constant across the dynamic range of the input signal, the amplifier is said to be ‘linear’. Amplifiers have limited capacity in terms of power delivered because of gain and phase variances, particularly saturation at high power, which makes all practical amplifiers nonlinear when the input power level varies. The ratio of the distortion power generated relative to the signal power delivered is a measure of the non-linearity of the amplifier.
In RF communication systems, the maximum allowable non-linearity of the amplifier is specified by government agencies such as the FCC or the ITU. Because amplifiers are inherently nonlinear when operating near saturation, the linearity requirements often become the limitation on rated power delivering capability. In general, when operating near saturation, the linearity of the amplifier degrades rapidly because the incremental signal power delivered by an amplifier is proportionally less than the incremental distortion power generated.
Various compensation approaches are conventionally applied to reduce the distortion at the output of the system, which in turn increases the rated power delivering capability. The preferred approach is feed forward compensation. In feed forward RF power amplifiers an error amplifier is employed to amplify main amplifier distortion components which are then combined out of phase with the main amplifier output to cancel the main amplifier distortion component. In general, feed forward compensation provides the power capability of the main amplifier and the linearity of the error amplifier.
The performance of a feed forward amplifier may typically be analyzed based on two cancellation loops. Loop1, called the carrier cancellation loop, includes the RF input and the main amplifier. In addition to the main amplifier signal output the first loop provides a distortion signal obtained by sampling the main amplifier output and combining it with an out of phase sample of the RF input signal. Conventionally, the gain and phase of the signal in loop1 are controlled to ideally provide a distortion signal with the input RF carrier component completely cancelled and only the distortion component remaining. Loop 2 is typically referred to as the error cancellation loop or auxiliary path loop. In loop 2 the distortion component provided from loop 1 is amplified by the error amplifier and injected back into the main path at an error coupler to cancel the distortion component in the main path and ideally provide a distortion free signal at the output.
One problem with this traditional approach to loop control is error coupler loss. The output power capability of the system drops due to losses in the error coupler that recombines the error path signal with the (delayed) main path signal. To reduce this coupler loss the first loop gain adjustment may be varied. However, when the gain is varied from optimal carrier cancellation, more load is carried by the error amplifier. This may in some cases require a larger error amplifier, increasing system costs.
Therefore, a need presently exists for an improved feed forward amplifier and method for controlling loop cancellation which can address this and related problems in optimizing system performance.